Tuesday, 18 July 2017

Generator fumes kill couple in Cross River

There was pandemonium, weekend, at Ikot Effanga Mkpa, a community on the outskirt of Calabar, Cross River State, when newly wedded couple, Mr. and Mrs. Kabiru Mohammed, aged 32 years and 27 years respectively, died as a result of generator emission in their rented apartment.

The couple, according to reports, got married two months ago in Jos where they were domiciled before relocating to Cross River.

The landlady of the house situated on plot 1, Ikot Effanga Mkpa New Layout, Stella Uruaka, said that she had severally warned the couple to stop using the generator in their apartment since she observed the inclination.

Her words: “I know Kabiru as a truck mechanic from Oyo State and was based in Jos, while the wife, Omowunmi too, was in Jos before she joined him in Calabar after their wedding, two months ago.

“When they packed in newly, about eight weeks ago, they were keeping the generator outside but I do not really know what happened that made them change their mind to be keeping it inside the house.

“Each time they switch on the generator, the noise and smoke usually disturbed me because their bathroom is close to my room. I complained bitterly about the generator, but instead of taking it outside, the couple decided to keep it in their kitchen,” she disclosed.

She said that on that day, they switched on the generator as usual and surprisingly, the generator was on till about 2.00a.m in the early hours of Saturday and then went off.

Call by deceased younger brother: Her daughter, who also spoke to our reporter, said she got a call from Kabiru’s younger brother, Jide, who complained that Kabiru was not picking calls to his phone and asked her to check if he was in.

“I told him I will call him back, but he insisted that I should go and knock on their door, which I did, but no one answered. So I told him that whenever I see them, I will inform him.

“Suddenly, we saw the young boy who normally helped them to sweep the house and do some chores come around with his father and they started calling Kabiru’s phone and then opened the window and saw both of them lying down lifeless in the sitting room, I told the man that they cannot possibly be sleeping.

”So we informed the police and the door was broken and we saw their lifeless bodies in the sitting room, water was already coming out of Kabiru’s mouth, the whole place was still filled with the fume and smoke from the generator and the people, who entered the flat were coughing consistently,” she stated.

Speaking further, she said the police came and asked them to take photographs, but since the cause of death was already established, nothing else was done, their remains were taken back to Jos for burial because they were both Muslims”.

According to her, they were just too young to die in such a tragic manner, the man was 32, while the lady was 27 years old and they had no child yet.

“My mother warned them about the generator they kept inside their apartment, but they did not listen. We are still in shock, my mother is yet to recover from the incident, including the entire neighbourhood, Ikot Effanga Mkpa I community, it is a big tragedy,” she bemoaned.